WWE’s Story on Hennig’s New Name, Note on Danielson’s WWE Release

Source: Wrestling Observer Newsletter

– One of the stranger things about Daniel Bryan’s WWE release is that Vince McMahon personally fired him via telephone late Friday night of last week, instead of having someone like John Laurinaitis do it. WWE creative and company executives were said to have no idea that any trouble with Danielson was even brewing. Some knew that there was heat from the tie incident on RAW but nobody expected that this would happen.

– WWE claimed on TV that Joe Hennig is using the Michael McGillicutty name on NXT because the last name is his mother’s maiden name and he wanted to honor the other side of his family. Actually, Hennig’s mother was born Leonice Leonard, so it remains to be seen where the McGillicutty name came from. This could be related or not but McGillicutty was actually the maiden name of Lucy Ricardo on the hit 50’s TV show “I Love Lucy.”